How to Sweeten Your Professional Services Offering in Commercial Brokerage

In commercial real estate brokerage your professional services should be attractive in all respects so that you can pull in the interest of local clients and prospects. Don’t be ‘ordinary’ in your services offering.

You, as a broker or agent need to be competitive, relevant and real; and then also well aware of what the other agents doing, offering, and saying as part of their listing pitch and presentation. In simple terms, you need to sweeten your services offering, this year and right now!

(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)

So what can you do here?  Attract the attention of the prospects and clients that you serve; pull them in and grab their attention. Make them think, and help them remember you as special and real. How can you be the ‘top agent’ to solve a problem locally? Good question of course, and it needs a real answer.

Your Services Offering

Here are some ideas to assist with that process:

1. Keep your actions and recommendations simple – don’t over complicate things when it comes to resolving the property challenge for the client. Show them exactly how you can resolve the issue that they are struggling with. Tell them exactly how you will move through the property challenge and why that can be so easy when it comes to your situation and your professional services.
2. Provide some special marketing solutions – the marketing process in commercial real estate today is quite specific and special. There is no point in being ‘ordinary’ when it comes to property advertising. Put yourself into the marketing process so the client can see exactly how important you are to their property challenge and situation. Your marketing recommendation has to be ‘right on point’ and on target to the reach the most important market segments that you think will buy or lease the property.
3. Research your database in and as part of making your marketing recommendations – if you had been working your database specifically and directly over time, there will be plenty of opportunities in the database to work with particularly with identifying the right the buyers or tenants as the case may be. Show the client your short list of people (suitably edited for confidentiality) that you would take to the property as soon as the listing is released to the market. It is very difficult for a client to ignore a proactive agent that is ready to commit to the marketing and inspection process with a shortlist of identified and qualified people. Put your database at the centre of your marketing recommendations and show the client why your database is important to their property challenge. Tell a client why you have selected these people on your short list and what you’ll do with them to help immediately in the marketing processes applicable to the listing.
4. Provide some testimonials that are relevant to the listing – some of your previous transactions and clients will be relevant and helpful to your listing a process today. Carry with you a set of relevant and accurate testimonials applying to sales, leasing, and property management. The different testimonials will help you move through client questions, challenges, and presentations.

You will note that I have not referred to any ‘commission reduction’ or change as part of the listing sweetening process. The clients that are looking for a commission reduction as part of listing, are not the clients that you want for the long term; they are not serious, and they certainly do not understand the intricacies of property marketing and negotiation.